


And a face like yours couldn't make me scared

by evarosen



Category: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Body Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 07:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5040199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evarosen/pseuds/evarosen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John is a little boy the first time he sees the Wounded Man. </p><p>(Or, John's ghosts follow him. Not only in a figurative sense).</p>
            </blockquote>





	And a face like yours couldn't make me scared

John is a boy the first time he sees the Wounded Man. 

He's seen enough Pale Ones by this point to recognize and not acknowledge them. The other ones make it easy, because they never talk to him. Some glare at him, some look at him with pity, but no one has shown signs of wanting to stick around. Except for the Wounded Man.

"Don't cry, John. Your mother wouldn't want you to cry," the Wounded Man says to him. His voice sounds muffled; John believes it's because his neck is bent at an odd angle. He's covered in blood, and his clothes are torn in places that also show torn flesh under them.

John wipes his face angrily. The Wounded Man is right; his mother is always telling him he must be strong. She's preparing him for something important; but he doesn't want to ask the Wounded Man if he knows about this, because he doesn't want them to lock him up as they did with her.

It doesn't matter if you're telling the truth. If you sound insane, you're insane. That's another thing he's learned. People don't want to learn ugly truths. That mankind's going to end up in flames. That you see the dead. That you're going to lead what's left of mankind after most of them are dead.

"Why are you talking to me?" John asks under his breath, his mouth barely moving. The Wounded Man crouches at his side. John doesn't turn his head. He doesn't have a weak stomach, his mother has seen to it; but there's nothing else to look at on that side.

"Because you shouldn't have to be alone," the Wounded Man says.

John snorts. He is not alone, he has his mother. They'd taken her away, but they wouldn't be able to keep her away from him forever. But that's not for this bleeding shadow to know.

"I'm alone, you're not really here," he mutters instead, and then steals a glance to the Wounded Man, and makes a grimace, as if his appearance gave him pause. The Wounded Man looks troubled by this.

"Sorry, I can't do anything about..." he says, presumably referring to his ruined visage. John shrugs, but swallows again, as the Wounded Man's insubstantial hand hovers over his head. No Pale One has tried to touch him before, and he isn't really eager to find out if they can. "Sorry," the Wounded Man says again, and he sounds genuinely contrite. "It's just, I've been watching you grow all this time, and..."

That gives John pause. So they could be around, without him noticing? That was an unsettling thought.

"Why me?" John says at last. There's no one around, his foster parents are not the most dedicated people he's ever met. He could have gone away any time he wanted, but he wants Sarah to know where he is so she can come for him more easily.

"Because I should have been here for you, all this time, and I couldn't. Because you're important."

"Who are you?" John says, but before he can look at him with more attention, the Wounded Man is gone.

*

Sarah doesn't come for him, but the Terminators do. The Wounded Man shouts at him to run, and to duck, and to hurry to stop his mother from doing something she will regret forever. He sees Miles Dyson leaving, waving goodbye at his son outside his house.

The Wounded Man's unjuries are different when he stands behind John's mother, watching John cry over the T-800. He doesn't tell John not to cry this time, and John doesn't ask him anything.

John doesn't see the shadow of the T-800 nodding at the Wounded Man, or the Wounded Man nodding grimly back. 

John thinks the future has changed, and cares for little else.

And it has; just not enough. The Wounded Man's unjuries are different, but they're still there.

*

When John's mother is gone, he waits for her. He waits for her, and doesn't hide fast enough because of that.

"I warned you," the Wounded Man tells him. 

John would smirk at him, but the injuries on his face are still fresh and he doesn't want to pull at the stitches. They have no supplies; if they open, they'll stay that way.

"Why, in God's name or whatever that's up there, are you still here?"

 _Why Sarah hasn't come back_ , he doesn't want to ask, because he's afraid the Wounded Man will know, and tell him. He wouldn't want her to linger, but would want to see her one more time. 

"My time to go is long gone. Or long to come, it has always confused me," the Wounded Man tells him. He's kneeling besides John, who's laying on the floor, using his coat as a pillow; and this close, he can see the Wounded Man's eyes in detail for the first time. They're blue, and the skin around them, though still covered in blood, is unlined. He must have been young when he died.

"I wish you'd go away," John says, and closes his eyes. He must drift off for a while, because the lights of the safe house are off when he opens them again. The Wounded Man is still there, a silhouette in the darkness.

"You must stop waiting, John. Her time was due, and she's gone to wait for you instead. She fulfilled her mission here."

John wishes how to perform an exorcism has been among Sarah's lessons.

"And you have a lot of unfinished bussiness? Great. Go fulfill them." he mutters. He will not cry for a third time in front of his ghost stalker. He's nobody's tv drama.

"I suppose I could go," the Wounded Man muses, "if I wanted to. But I'm used to looking after you. I don't want to wait for you; all I've ever wanted was to be at your side."

"Who are you? Did you die because of me?" John asks. He's learned over the years that the ones who linger are often the displaced ones; the ones who'd missed their time for being outside the stream. Some of the things the Wounded Man said sound very much like he fits the pattern; John only wishes he'd loss a little less blood and his eyesight was clearer. "Did I send you to die for me? If I did, it had to be done. Nothing personal."

He blinks, and the Wounded Man is gone.

It takes a few years, for the dots to connect. For the kid he saves to grow and his features to match, _sans_ the blood and the sorrow.

Nothing personal, indeed.

*

"So that's why you were never around when my mother was there. Shouldn't you be with her? Must you leave her alone a second time?"

"She understands, that my place is at your side."

"Your place is..." John wants to break stuff; but most things on his quarters are irreplaceable, and he would wake up Kyle. _Christ_. "You know what I will do. What I did. That..." he gestures at the older Kyle's injuries, at the signs of his violent death, at John's command. "It's like I'd done it myself." 

But the Wounded Man... _Kyle_...just shakes his head. 

Something else occurs to John. "Are you here to prevent it?" he asks suspiciously (not hopefully. He knows what has to be done; if there was a way around, he would have find it by now).

The Wounded Man hesitates. "There's no good way around," he finally concedes. 

John narrows his eyes. "No good way. But there's a way."

"John? Who are you talking to?" Kyle says. He looks better; the fever's broke. John turns his head, and the Wounded Man is gone again.

"To you. You're better, I see. I was just saying, I wouldn't know what to do without you at my side," John says.

There was a way around. 

John ignores the Wounded Man's screams; a second later, the Kyle of flesh and bone is also screaming inside the time-displacement unit, while Skynet's hands close over John.

There's always a way around everything. Even humanity.

*

John extends his offer along with his open palm in the hospital's parking lot. It's a token offer; he means to have them at his side one way or another. 

When Sarah refutes his ability to kill them, he sees the Wounded Man at her side. His expression is resigned; and the injuries have been replaced once more; necrotic nanites now crawl over his features and limbs.

John turns the angle of his attack, and connects with Sarah's Guardian instead.

When the magnet pulls at him, and he struggles against it, there's only one Kyle in front of him.

This time, there are no Pale Ones to see the wetness on his eyes.

"I thought you would understand," John says, but Kyle has no way to know what John has done and not done for him, so he leaves.

John sees his own scarred face on the corner of his eye. His expression is disapproving, but not overtly accusing.

Not at his side is better than dead.

And now they have all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! And sleep-deprived. Just getting the weird stuff I wrote while I was depressed over my dead computer. So...yeah, IDEK either. Thoughts?


End file.
